oh yeah. the cinna-sweet taste you just can't resist. cinnamon toast crunch. crave those crazy squares®. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. the l.a.x. shooting. new details today but there is one thing that remains a deep mystery. 24 hours later. a live report in minutes. a bottom shell book with startling new revelations why mitt romney decided not to pick chris christie as his running mate. a new book on america. what is the one word most americans say they think about their country. the glass is half full. in office politics, one of the

most interesting ways china is different when it comes to fast food in that country. my talk with cnbc's carl quintanilla. hey there, everyone. it's high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." new details emerging about the deadly shooting at l.a.x. the suspect 23-year-old putt krnia literally shot his way through a security checkpoint killing one agent, injuring others and sending hundreds of travelers running for their lives. this video shows the terrifying moments inside terminal 3. miguel almaguer is at l.a. x. with the latest. what are you learned? >> good morning. terminal 3 at this hour remains shut down. that's the crime scene where this took place, where the gunman allegedly walked in, shot the tsa member killing him, wounding two others and made his

way through the terminal. at least 167,000 passengers had their flights either delayed or canceled. all of this taking place during the middle of the morning weekday rush. >> shots fired. terminal. >> hundreds scrambled for their lives as a lone gunman opened fire inside l.a.x. >> units respond to terminal 3. there's a shooter. >> chaos and blood shed at 9:309 friday morning. police say 23-year-old paul ciancia walked inside the terminal, pulled this assault rifle from a bag and unleashed round after round. >> one of the witnesses is seeing that the suspect is, targeting tsa. >> a gunman opened fire in l.a.x.'s terminal 3 killing a tsa agent. the first to die in the line of duty. >> the agent killed was identified as 39-year-old yoord gerardo hernandez. but gunfire wasn't over. police say the suspect was on the move. now past security and had hadded

through the terminal. >> loading his gun, looked straight at me. i was five feet from him. >> panicked passengers hid in restrooms. others poured onto the tarmac. >> kind of screaming. >> police gave chase. soon, a gun battle. >> airport police officers engaged the suspect, opened fire, wounded him. and took him into custody. >> is he down? >> he is down. >> with at least seven injured and six hospitalized, the wounded were carted to safety. >> you see a man in a wheelchair as well as the tsa agent there covered in blood. his leg has been hit. or at least is bleeding >> tactical teams swept the terminal. rooftops, parking garages and access roads all shut down. later, the all clear. the threat finally over. >> the suspect los angeles

resident from new jersey is in custody but police have not released a motive. that remains part of their active investigation inside terminal 3. meantime, all of the other terminals here at l.a.x. are up and running but the ripple effect from delayed flights and cancellations will last at least another day. >> miguel, an update on his condition. we were told he was shot four times, a couple of times even in the chest today. can you confirm that? do we know how he is today? >> the hospital officials at this hour are not updating us on the suspect's condition. we know that one patient remains in critical condition. one could assume that that would be the suspect after being shot multiple times, including in his chest. but at this hour, there is no confirmation on his updated condition, alex. >> nbc's miguel almaguer, thanks. let's go to politics. new today, president obama sending this message to both parties in congress. work together to pass a budget. >> here's the bottom line.

congress should pass a budget that cuts things we don't need and closes wasteful tax loopholes that don't help create jobs so that we can free up resources for the things that do create jobs and growth. building new roads, building new bridges and schools and airports. that creates jobs. >> meantime, republicans are doubling down today on the problems that be have plagued the obama care website with senator dan coats of indiana delivering the weekly gop response. >> too many americans still cannot even access the online exchanges and for the few that have, their experiencing sticker shock. the president told us that obama care is more than a website. i agree. it it is more than just a website and the problems run far deeper than a few technological glitches. >> well, the white house released a progress report late friday on the website fix saying it is improving with users now waiting an average of less than a second for pages to load compared to eight seconds in the first few weeks.

teams are working to improve the application process and increase system speed and efficiency. another round of fixes is planned for this weekend. in fact, i'm taking a look at a note being told from 9:00 p.m. tonight till 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, the website will be down and it will be fixed at that point. highway the online fixes may be coming, there's damage to the program's image. that has yet to be repaired. how will proponents win back support for the fledgling health care program. >> joining me paul tomko who sat in on the hearings this week about the troubled launch. welcome, sir. thanks for joining me. >> it's a pleasure to join. >> you if we have house republicans threatening to subpoena the white house to get enrollment numbers, this is all happening after the oversight committee said on day one of the launch, six people enrolled. a day later it was up to 248. can the house force the obama administration to release updated numbers? >> well, i think that the administration has said all along they'll do a month's worth

of data at a time. i think the important thing here, alex, is to understand that when we rolled out medicare part d when massachusetts did its health care, universal health care system, they had similar delays. there were peaks that april came well into the open enrollment and certainly part did was not without its bugs in the system. the idea is not to point a finger of blame but extend a hand of help on behalf of congress. let's get together and get this thing running. people want to embrace the benefits of the act. i hear it more and more. look, i've been asked to vote 46, 47 times over to repeal the affordable care act by the republican majority in our house. they have wanted to destroy this opportunity for our americans to have health care benefits since its inception. and it's time to really get to work and get the system running. >> representative tomko, is there an educated guess as to what the numbers may be when they're released officially in

about a month? do we have any idea, speculation how many people are signing up? >> you know, it's hard to say. in my hope state of new york that has its own exchange, we're at 160,000 or so. i think the numbers will climb. you have to remember too that there was a bulk of 36 states that chose to not go and develop their own exchange that created even more difficulties with the system. so i think you know, the numbers will be what they are. i think you're going to see peaks. that's just human nature that come in the last few weeks of the open window by december 15th. but the effort here is a 24/7 commitment to get it up and running and to make certain that people have acis esto affordable quality health care. i would remind the viewers it's not just the website. there are personal visits at various sites around the country. there are telephone opportunities and then there are the, you know, the folks who will be working with us as

neighbor gators that will be networking with people to explain the whole process to them. there's also a lot of shopping going on where people are gathering information and not yet enrolling. i think there's a natural sluggishness that begins outside the bugs in the system and we'll get those glitches repaired. >> sir, you mentioned the new york state residents. are you hearing specifically from your constituents positive or negative feedback? >> oh, absolutely positive. people now know that you know, there's a lot of benefit there to be into an exchange. there's great benefits with the affordable care act with pre-existing conditions being wiped away, with young people being able to attach to their parents' plan, with free annual checkups made available for the elderly and the list goes on and on. you know, it is time that we had this universal access and that we had you know, the consumers in control rather than an insurance industry that in many cases was not providing adequate coverage or denying many people

because of very minuscule pre-existing conditions. >> yeah. secretary sebelius has said in effect the buck stops with me. and you have rnc chair reince priebus calling on her firing. some dems also agree to that. even robert gibbs said that some people in charge of this launch should be fired. why have no heads rolled after a foulup this big? >> well, know, i think basically you've got an awful lot of hands into the experiment here with different contractors piecing together the rolling out of the program. and i think right now, the spirit of cooperation collaboration to get this done is much more overruling than having to assess blame in any location. that will come. there will be a review of how this happened. but right now, let's get to work. let's get this running because people do want to enroll. i think they see this as a major benefit. this is one of the biggest health care reform insurance reform launches since medicare a

number of years ago in the early '60s. >> may i ask you before i let you go about the budget talks on the hill? there's been talk of the elusive grand bargain on spending taxes and entitlement programs. given the month we had in october, is expecting a grand bargain like expecting a unicorn sighting your backyard? >> well, i will suggest that the tone was not good during the government shutdown and the near hit with the economic default. but i believe with a bipartisan outcome, alex, where democrats produced 198, all of us in house voting in favor of reopening government, avoiding the economic key fault and going to the conference table naming the conferrees. i believe that there was a bipartisan spirit that brought us to the table hopefully that will continue, but it needs to be bold and balanced. it needs to include revenues and it needs to do belt tightening and closing loopholes as the president said, that just don't create jobs. we need to invest where we must

after cutting where we can. >> okay. i'm going to call it bold balanced and bipartisan. b cubed. thank you very much. >> there you go. it's great to join you. >> thank you so much. let's go now to the weather. residents in central texas are cleaning up after heavy rinse and flooding. that storm prompted dozens of emergency rescues. dylan dreyer has the latest on this. that's kind of a ms. >> they saw about 12 to 13 inches of rain in parts of texas. that was through wednesday and thursday. then it moved eastward yesterday as we saw. now, temperatures areal cooing off back behind the big front. 47 degrees in kansas city, chicago only at 43 right now. still warm up and down the east coast. temperatures top out in the mid to upper 60s. tomorrow is when that colder air is going to settle in. we'll drop to 48 in boston and 48 tomorrow in new york city. looking at boston with the rally going on for the red sox world

champions today, great day for a parade. tomorrow 48 degrees. we'll stay in the 40s till the middle of the week in the boston area. we do have rain still with that cold front. the same one that was affecting parts of texas and the eastern half of the country yesterday. now it's moving through parts of central and southern florida where we're going to see most thunderstorms this morning. but we're into this and. we're also looking at scattered showers and lighter rain, especially in and around the xwraks. it's dying down as it moves into western, northwestern pennsylvania and parts of western new york state, as well. there's not a whole lot of snow with it. it's not that cold in the great lakes region. we are seeing a bigger system affect parts of the pacific northwest. in fact, seattle and areas up and down the coast of washington state, even in the northwestern oregon could end up with wind gusts up to about 60 miles per hour with several inches of rain. today we're looking for temperatures to start cooling off, and then tomorrow, even though most of the country is fairly sunny, temperatures mainly in the 40s. >> dylan drier, thank you much.

up next, counting the lost meals from food stamp cuts and a fascinating tidbit from a new political page turner on why president obama couldn't stand golfing with president clinton. the end. lovely read susan. but isn't it time to turn the page on your cup of joe? gevalia, or a cup of johan, is like losing yourself in a great book. may i read something? yes, please. of course. a rich, never bitter taste cup after cup. net weight 340 grams. [ sighs ] [ chuckles ] [ announcer ] always rich, never bitter. gevalia. and this park is the inside of your body. see, the special psyllium fiber in metamucil actually gels. and that gelling helps to lower some cholesterol. metamucil. 3 amazing benefits in 1 super fiber.

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the 2012 presidential race hits bookstores next week. "double down" reports that top obama aides considered swapping in hillary clinton for joe biden as vp. the book says mitt romney ridiculed chris christie's weight and passed him over for vice president because "the garden state governor's background was littered with potential land mine." here's christie's response. >> i have a great relationship with the romneys and the campaign and it's au just you know, trying to make sure they

sell as many books as possible. >> let's bring in political reporter for u.s. news and word report lauren fox and white house reporter david nakamura. good to see you. >> good morning. >> this first part, lorn, these tidbits we're learning some of the names i'm thinking a lot of these staffers were wishing this didn't get out there but they are to the potential vp candidates. they're calling it project goldfish in terms of finding the v.p. paul ryan was fish sconsin and christie was puffer fish. now the reaction, what has it been like so far to this book and what shocked you the most? >> certainly i think the discussion about chris christie as a vice presidential candidate makes a lot of sense. this is a guy who can go on the stump and appeal to voters. he can connect with them but at the same time if we look back to his convention speech, a lot of people said it was very much about chris christie, a little bit less about mitt romney. i think it was interesting for

me to see the tension between those twos republican party leaders. >> okay. let's listen to part of andrea mitchell's report on this book, david. take a listen. >> the book has new details on obama's edgy relationship with bill clinton. when the two tried to bond over a round of golf, obama couldn't even finish 18 holes telling an aide, i like him. in doses. and the author's right after the famously talkative clinton held obama captive during a campaign event in new york, they were supposed to share a one-on-one meal but obama couldn't handle any more undiluted clinton. so invited aides to join. >> okay, david. you're a white house correspondent there for the "washington post." is this new to you? what do you make of it. >> it's not really new. this is obviously someone who ran president obama beat bill clinton's wife in 2008. and since then, their relationship had been strained. for that reason, you know, president clinton is very protective of his wife and

certainly said some things back in 2008 that got him off to a rough start. they tried to patch it up during the first term. i covered a lot of this. it's true there was friction here and it's true even that you know, sometimes i think president obama thought that bill clinton would try to upstage him. he's a larger than life figure. overtime we saw president obama really needed bill clinton's help for a lot of reasons, not only the big famous speech during the convention that stole the show and got better reviews even than president obama, president obama now calls him the chief of explaining stuff when he needs stuff to understand the economy and why the country is going in the right direction. so president obama in the end despite what this book says and i think some of this is true, i think in the end though, i think president obama did value clinton's input as did his campaign. >> how does he walk this kind of stuff back? or does he not need to because he doesn't need president clinton anymore. i think going forward, what's important is how bill

clinton and president obama play in 2016, if hillary clinton gets in the race, what happens to joe biden? that's obviously touchy there. i think president obama will be pretty supportive of hillary clinton goes and biden chooses not to. if they both go, that will be awkward. >> new topic with house and senate negotiators rather set on -- rather they met wednesday. lawmakers working right now to pass a temporary budget before the unone expires on january 15th. any sense from the white house whether it's going to turn into another 11th hour fight, lauren. >> i think one of the things we're seeing from this is that the white house is optimistic about the budget negotiations going forward. democratic budget chairman patty murray has said everything is on the table. they're going to negotiate here. some of those old phantoms still exist when it comes to creating a budget. republicans don't want to give on tax revenue and democrats want to replace the sequestration, those automatic

budget cuts that a lot of them said were a little bit too much of a meat cleaver and not enough of at exact cut there. i think people are optimistic. some old issues still exist and i don't know if we'll be able to move past those. >> david, the house and senate negotiators hope to strike a deal on a new farm bill because if no deal is reached, the price of milk could double. what are the sticking points there? >> this is a problem, the food stamps is a major issue in this. both sides are far apart. senate democrats do not want to cut back the program. it is automatic cuts to the food stamp program hit this past friday. that affected i think 47 million people will see less money now from the government and going forward, there's more republicans who want to do a lot more to the program to cut it back. these are the big issues. i think it's going to be interesting, the farm bill will be an early test of how well the budget negotiations could go. so far we haven't seen a lot of common ground between the two sides. >> david nakamura and lauren

fox, thanks, guys. >> thanks, alex. a ray of hope of one within economically battered city in today's list of number ones. [ woman ] too weak. wears off. [ female announcer ] stop searching and start repairing. eucerin professional repair moisturizes while actually repairing very dry skin. the end of trial and error has arrived. try a free sample at eucerinus.com. an important message for americans eligible an important message for for medicare. the annual enrollment period is now open. now is the time to find the coverage that's right for you ...at the right price. the way to do that is to explore your options. you can spend hours doing that yourself ... or you can call healthmarkets, and let us do the legwork for you - with no cost or obligation. we'll search a variety of plans from nationally recognized companies to find the coverage that's the best fit for you, at a price that fits your budget. and we'll do it at no charge to you. you can talk to us over the phone ... or meet with

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least its housing realtor.com names motown the top turn around city. it's easy to see why with detroit seeing a 44% increase in median prices last quarter compared to a year ago. santa barbara is second. homes aren't sitting on the market as long as they are in reno, nevada where the prices have gone up 28%. the search giant google is the top brand among democrats from this year's brand index rankings. amazon.com and crafts men round out the top three.

among republicans craft man is the top brand followed by lowe's and johns & johnson. >> i want to walk around paris with you. >> i keep forgetting you're just a tourist. >> that's a great woody allen movie. trinidad cuba is second in the list. the 500th anniversary of the city's founding. paris is number one. cape two south africa is third partly for its natural beauty. chicago is the only u.s. city to make the top ten coming in eighth. those are your number ones. excuse me? glacier point? follow me! ♪ follow me! keep up, keep up, keep up. ♪ look he's right there! follow me! ♪ wow! crystal falls? follow me! [ male announcer ] the nissan pathfinder. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

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afghanistan in 2009. on the u.s.s. saratoga in 1982. [ male announcer ] once it's earned, usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation because it offers a superior level of protection and because usaa's commitment to serve current and former military members and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt". new york city police are tightening security in the city in preparation for tomorrow's new york city marathon. 100 additional surveilance cameras have been installed and there will be hundreds of yumed and undercover police officers patrolling crowds. police officials say planning for the extra security began after the boston bombings. passengers on jetblue and delta

are now the first to be permitted to use their electronic devices except for making phone calls. the faa approved relaxed rules yesterday. other airlines are expected to get the okay by year's end. the change is coming. daylight saving time ends tonight at 2:00 a.m. eastern time. that means set your clocks back an hour. 47 million americans are now dealing with the reality of cuts to their food stamps benefits. the automatic cut of $5 billion to that program went into effect yesterday. now congress is trying to negotiate a farm bill about which could mean more cuts for the food stamps program. mike taibbi got an increased look at the increased burden families are now faced with. >> connie can't find a full-time job, now laid off after ten years of teaching. relying on food stamps to feed her husband and three kids has been tough enough. >> it's really hard to always tell them no, you can't have that food item or you can't have

that necessity for living. because i don't have the money to buy it for you. >> and now it gets harder. it's a $5 billion cut in the federal food stamp budget that breaks down this way. about $11 a month for individuals and around $36 a month for a family of four. it may not sound like much, but in a place like visalia, california, hard hit by unemployment and underemployment, here's one view of what it bice at the local food pantry. suppose for your family of four you're going to cook a chicken. this one's big enough for leftovers, a can of peas and a little bit of pasta. nothing fancy. four meals for about eight bucks. but if you're a family that relies on food stamps, that $36 a month cut translates to 16 to 20 meals. that has joe blackburn whose medical issues cost him his corrections officer job already making painful job. >> i couldn't buy halloween

candy this year because i couldn't afford it. >> and daisy's two kids don't know their single mom is thinking of selling her old car and finding another way to get to her part-time job as a store clerk. >> i barely have enough to feed my kids and pay the bills. it's hard. >> and further cuts to the food stamp program are now being considered in congress. a frightening prospect for connie rhoades. >> i just hope and pray that i'm going to make it through. that's all i can do. >> the eight of net for tens of millions of americans a little less secure. mike taibbi, nbc news, california. >> joining me now is brad plummer a reporter with the "washington post." he's been following the looming food stamps crisis. with a welcome to you, brad. lawmakers from both sides of the aisle met 0 negotiate the long delayed farm bill. as you reported this week trying to bridge the $35 billion gap between the house and senate bill. looking at the house bill it

calls for a $39 billion cut to the food stamp program. that one reinstates work requirements for able bodied recipients and restrictions states ability to determine eligibility for stamps, as well. how exactly would these changes be implemented? >> so right now, for the past few years, state states have been able to be extend food stamp benefits to be able bodied adults who could work but can't find jobs because unemployment's been high. a lot of states have taken these waivers and said look, our jobless rates are soaring. these people can't find work. we need to allow them to have higher benefits. the house bill would basically restrict that. it would say look, these people either need to be in a work training program, they need to find jobs. or they're going to have to see a cutback in their benefits. their argument is that this will spur more people to get to work. a lot of other people have said look, people can't find jobs right now. that's unrealistic.

>> okay. so let's look at the pros and cons. some are saying the fact that lawmakers got together in the first place is a good sign. on the flipside, how worried should those who rely on food stamps be? >> it's very hard to figure out. the one bright side of this i go esif you're a food stamp recipient is that if congress is deadlocked, that means essentially the food stamp prap carries on as it is. with the automatic cuts that just went into effect on friday. but you know, in this case, it's not as if the food stamp program shuts down if congress can't come to agreement. it's a man doer to program. so it would more or less continue in its current shape and form, basically the house and senate are figuring out how to change the eligibility rules. >> so the nation is calling this a bipartisan scandal. here's what they're saying. this gets back to a truism about washington getting more stark. the poor have virtually no pull.

friday's food stamps cuts are much less a result of red team versus blue team politics and much more a result of political process where money talks. what do you make of that argument? >> so it is interesting that there are two parts of the farm bill. there are the subsidies which often by and large, benefit either wealthier agribusinesses or farmers and those aren't seeing nearly the same sharp cuts that food stamps have. so it does sort of indicate that you know, there are certain recipients of government programs who have a lot more sway than people who receive food stamps. >> what about democrats? how much can they be blamed for how we got to yesterday's cuts? and could they have deincluded themselves that the cuts which went into effect yesterday would never materialize? >> so the story basically is in 2009, the stimulus bill boosted food stamp benefits for just about everyone. the idea was that we're in a

recession. we should provide people more aid for food. and those extended benefits were basically supposed to -- they were designed to wind down slowly and eventually they would sort of fadeaway by 2015 or so. but over the years, democrats have actually taken some of that money to pay for a couple other programs. they use it to prevent teacher layoffs in the states. they used it for a bill that basically implemented michelle obama's healthy foods act. so in some ways they have been partly responsible for the situation. they've always told themselves look, we're going to try to restore these food stamp cuts, but they never have. now we're seeing a very sharp cliff that starred on friday. >> we are indeed. brad plummer, thanks for your time. >> thanks so much. in today's office politics, cnbc's squawk on the street anchor carl quintanilla did a special on the fast food in

china. we'll focus on mcdonald's and the difference between a big mac here and there. first i asked him if the stock market highs of october might reflect a market bubble. >> a lot of people think so. a lot of people think that the valuations on some of the social media stocks, twitter is about to go public, market has had a run of record highs day after day after day. that if you look back to say 1970, it's only happened 1% of the time. so we're in a bit of a run here. and a lot of smart people, even though bullish on the economy long-term say we need to cool things off. things are getting a little too hot and heavy. the buyers are getting a little too euphoric given where economy is right now. we know that job growth and gdp are not keeping up. >> to those people who, as you said, think that we should maybe default just to get things in a more reasonable level, we've got a $17 trillion debt. at what point is that deemed to be unreasonable, unsustainable?

is there a cliff over which we will fall? >> yeah, you got to ask the bank. right? you got to ask the people who buy our debt. right now they're willing to continue to buy, which means rates, our interest rates are relatively low. yeah, but theoretically, the bank loses patience with you. right? they stop extending you that credit as much. and you watch your rates go up because they feel a little bit more nervous. the chinese by buy a lot of our debt. at some point will they come out with a public scolding. that would be a bad day. >> so how critical overall is the china/u.s. relationship? >> well, military lit, financially, it is becoming the key relationship for this country. you know, for the past century, it's been about europe and the middle east to some degrees degree. but the focus is shifting over to china. it's the second biggest economy now. they have a lot invested in us.

they want to make sure we're healthy to make sure they continue to be healthy. they always say, you want your kids to learn mandarin? there's a reason for that because the next 50 years are going to be more and more about us and them. >> it brings me to the point a special that you did for cnbc "china, mcdonald's." talk about that, what was the most surprising thing you learned? >> you know, i think in china, there is nount team. everything's like a mom and pop shop. if you wanted lunch there 30 years ago, you would go to a mom and pop shop. there was no chain business. the american companies have been able to move in there, starbucks is another great example and get them used to it the idea of you buying a brand. so here you buy mcdonalds, be you go over here you buy mcdonalds. nike is another good story. trying to get the chinese brand loyal. in the past they'll buy whatever happens to be closest to them. it's been a huge opportunity,

and it hasn't always been easy because the government operates a lot differently. but it's a fascinating com he. >> but just like when you go to mcdonald's anywhere but china, you know what you're going to get. is mcdonald's menu a lot different there? >> it's completely different. >> really? >> yes. spicier hamburgers. instead of fries they have corn, just like corn like not corn on the cobb just like loose corn. >> loose corn. >> and a bunch of -- the chinese don't like to eat with their hands or have their hands touch their food. so things are individually wrapped that you wouldn't expect it. it's bananas. you got to go sometimes. >> no corn kernels. >> not individually wrappeded. >> do you have the coolest job of anybody i've interviewed. >> i've said many times it is one of the coolest offices in the world. we always talk about the wheels of commerce. this is like being in that room, right? right over there, billions being raised by some of the biggest companies in the country in the

world. and watching it happen from this desk every day with jim cramer is a -- it's a gift every day. >> tomorrow at this time, carl tells me about his experience covering hurricane katrina and gives us his take on the financial health of some top tech companies. the fascinating story behind how barney's security decided to follow and stop a paying customer out the door. now there's a demand for answers regarding alleged racial profiling. to pay, and we give you a range of coverages to choose from. who is she? that's flobot. she's this new robot we're trying out, mostly for, like, small stuff. wow! look at her go! she's pretty good. she's pretty good. hey, flobot, great job. oops. [ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. call or click today. who works from the coffee shop and uses the free wi-fi. marie works from there too.

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bag, you know, you really want it, you're excited. you get the bag on your way home and then you're accused of using a fraud lent instrument. >> well, joining me now ginger adams otis with the new york daily news. we were talking during the commercial. it's an excellently written article you have. tell us about this first recent barney's incident. >> the first one came to our attention about two weeks ago now. it was on tuesday. and trayon christian is a young 19-year-old african-american from queens had filed a lawsuit. our court court reporter barbara ross flagged it as an important story. we immediately talked to his lawyer, talked to barney's. and we wrote a story about it. i beak said he had gone shopping april 29th. he knew exactly what he wanted, a ferragamo belt. he went in and bought it, paid for it with his debit card. he knew he had the money. he had a direct deposit from his work study check and he got out the door and stopped by four

undercover police officers who thought he couldn't afford it. >> why? what prompted them to detain these guys? what was it? >> that is what we still don't know and what everyone is trying to find out. all we know at this point, the nypd said they were on the premises in the security room of barney's for an unrelated issue. the nypd says his purchase was flagged while they were in the barney's security room by somebody in barney's. barney's said their preliminary investigation indicates their people had nothing to do with it. what seems to have happened is he did get outside. he was stopped by police officers. he said that they questioned his ability to afford such a pricey item. they asked him how he got the money and asked him for i.d. he gave it to them. he says in his lawsuit he was cuffed and taken to the nearby precinct house and held for about two hours. the nypd says about 45 minutes. >> now, it used to be that stores monitored a customer had he deemed suspicious till an

actual crime was committed but in these cases these customers were reportedly not observed stealing a thing. they claim they purchased these expensive items using credit or debit cards. whatever happened to probable cause? >> what is what we're asking, what is the probable cause in these kays. there are three others very similar to christian that have come forward and there may be more coming forward. nobody knows for certain what it was that triggered the reaction. and that's what i think the ag, the attorney general's office is trying to find out. >> can i ask, ginger, this all went down via nypd officers, not store security officers? is that becoming the norm in high end stores? >> it's a good question. we asked the nypd are they normally there and have an on floor security team? is there a working relationship they have. the ypd has said no, they're not patrolling upon demand or request. they get calls, of course, to come to a lot of stores because

credit card fraud, debt by the card fraud, identity theft are serious problems that occur frequently. it does cost merchants millions every year. obviously most retailers do have a relationship with the nypd. >> macy's rather is not commenting and say they're investigating. both stores maintain that none of their store personnel was involved. here's a statement from barney's. we have zero tolerance for any form of discrimination and stand by our long history in support of all human rights. ginger adams oh at this time, thank you for your time. what keeps americans united when there's so much dividing news philip caputo brings us the answer next. isn't it time to tn the page on your cup of joe? gevalia, or a cup of johan, is like losing yourself in a great book. may i read something? yes, please. of course. a rich, never bitter taste cup after cup. net weight 340 grams.

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that took a respected novelist on a journey in search of america. as the country lurches from one crisis to another, there's a nagging feeling of dred trig triggered by the current polarized environment. a poll finds 70% of americans

believe this country is headed in the wrong direction. a new book titled "the longest road" explores that in fascinating detail and asks a critical question. what keeps this united states of america together? joining me now, philip caput toe, are author of the book. talk about what you did covering 16,000 plus miles. what did you say it was 16241. >> 16,241 that's right. >> you went from florida to alaska. what was the impulse that drove you into making this road trip? was it a sense of adventure or something deeper than that. >> it was definitely a sense of adventure and the sheer romance of traveling from the southern-most point in the united states to the northern most point that you can reach by road. which is dead horse, alaska on the shores of the arctic ocean. but i was also curious at the time this 2011 in the wake of the 2010 elections, what was

uniting or disuniting the country and i wanted to talk to ordinary americans about that, and interview the 83 of them along the way. and got lots of answers ranging from a very simple one, one woman in texas told me it's hope that unites us and there were probably as many answers to that question as there were people i interviewed. >> uh-huh. philip, you said in your book that the america of 2010 is wa not the america of 1996. i've been living in it the whole time but in some ways i did rec not recognize it. what is it about this country that you didn't recognize? >> it was before i set out for the trip that i wasn't recognizing the america i had known growing up. and well into my adulthood. what the difference was is that the america that i saw on the trip was closer to the america that i had known than the one

that was lets say emanating out of washington andernen circles in new york. i found people to be a lot more reasonable, less strident, and more decent than paradoxically the people they elect. >> so given all this political and social chaos and threats of anarchy, was there, were there a combination of characters that you ran into on this road trip that gave you any sense that the center will hold? >> oh, it definitely did. i think that if perhaps a lot of ordinary americans were had a greater voice than they do in running the country because i think one of the things that's wrong with us now today is there's just too much big money influencing our political and even social life that probably the country would be better run. >> what did you discover, philip, in terms of what is keeping us together and why do you feel that way?

>> well, i think it is a fundamental reasonableness and a fundamental decency in ordinary americans and then probably an underlying knowledge to paraphrase something benjamin franklin said a long time ago is that if we don't hang together, we're going to hang separately. >> how about the word "hope"? is that the one word you heard? >> yeah, it was a lady in texas who she said that it was hope that held us together and it occurred to me even though some people think that's a bit of a cliche, it may be a cliche because it's true. if you think back to the history of the country, going back to the puritans who came here in the hope of achieving religious freedom, if you go to the revolution and the hope of throwing off the yoke of monarchy to the western frontier, the hope of bettering your life to the immigrant generations, it has always been

hope of a better life that has made this country unique and i think that holds us together. i might add that i had seen a line in the economist magazine in the united kingdom not toot long agoing that did pose the question says can america survive the end of the american dream? and the american dream is hope. >> philip caputo, author of "the longest road." appreciate it. >> pleasure being here. >> thanks. why one teen who testified in congress said blue skies scare him. reaction ahead. to my rescue. but as time passed, i started to notice max just wasn't himself. and i knew he'd feel better if he lost a little weight. so i switched to purina cat chow healthy weight formula. i just fed the recommended amount... and they both loved the taste. after a few months max's "special powers" returned...

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good day to all of you. welcome. it's 1:00 in the east, 10:00 a.m. out west. we have in this developing news. ticket counters are now open at l.a.x.'s terminal 3 though the rest of the terminal is still closed for the investigation into friday morning's deadly rampage. new reports that the suspect, 23-year-old paul krn shap sent ominous even suicidal text messages to family members in the days leading up to friday's shooting that left one tsa officer dead and others injured. this video shows the chaotic scene when the suspect armed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition began spraying the terminal with bullets. miguel alma gear has the very latest. to you? >> good morning. they've reopened the ticket counters so they he can get some of the passengers inside the terminal them their luggage back, personal belongings back.

many folks were in in the terminal waiting to board planes and when they ran out of the terminal, they left their luggage behind. that's an effort to help things get back up to speed. this airport is still feeling the ripple effect. more than 167,000 passengers had flights delayed or canceled yesterday all in the wake of that gunman who police say calmly walked into the terminal yesterday at 9:30 in the morning, pulled out an assault rifle out of a bag, then police say he began top open fire on folks who were in that area. this airport of course, as you can hear is still very active. we still have planes going by in this area but the terminal for the public beyond that checkpoint is shut down because of what you see here. although as passengers that were flooding out trying to make their way out to safety. we saw passengers running onto the tarmac. there were passengers cowerering inside restrooms and police closed in on the suspect. the suspect was shot and hospitalized today. we don't know his exact

condition. we were told he was shot multiple times. it's believed he was shot multiple times in the chest. we know at least one person is in the hospital in critical condition. there is your suspect, we're not able to confirm if that is the suspect in the hospital in serious condition, alex. so this investigation still fluid as they work to reopen the terminal for the flying public. >> miguel almaguer, thanks so much for that. white authorities are looking for a motive behind the shooting rampage, they believe the suspect has lived in los angeles for about a year and a half. he's original inially from pennsville, new jersey. the associated press found a handwritten note inside the shooter's bag with an anti-government anti-tsa rant. now to washington where work is under way right now to make repairs to the health care website. nbc's kristen welker has the details. good day. >> reporter: al lech, good afternoon to you as you know, they are cry trying to fix this website, but meanwhile, a lot of

lingering questions about how many people have actually enrolled. the obama administration says they won't release official figures until another two weeks or so. meanwhile, according to some newly released documents, it appears as though those initial enrollment figures were quite low. all of this comes while there are mounting calls for more information and more transparency. >> it's the question that continues to dog the obama administration. just how many people have enrolled through healthcare.gov. the white house won't say yet. a problem for a president who has vowed transparency. >> i think the issue is if they had more information, they might provide it, they simply don't have it which is a reflection how bad this rollout has gone. >> but this week, a house committee released documents which show just six people enrolled on the day the health care website was launched. a few days later that number was only up to 248. a house aide says the notes spilled "war room" were taken

during meetings between administration officials and government contractors. >> i think that is a dog bites man story. >> white house press sect jay carney called the figures cherry picked leaks by republicans and not official numbers. the administration says the website's glitches are making it tough to get actual totals and they are lowering expectations for the initial enrollment report. expected in a few weeks. we told new advance that there would be low enrollment figures initially. >> with the white house in damage control mode, some are wondering if mr. obama is facing a second term curse like ronald reagan who was plagued by the iran-contra affair or bill clinton who was embroiled in the monika lewinsky scandal. >> there is something to be said about the historical antecedents here. it's hard to be president and more difficult to be president in this day and age where controlling your message on any given day is virtually impossible. >> now, dave kemp, charp of the house ways and means committee,

has written a letter to cms, one of the agencies in charge of the website asking for as much information as possible about those enrollment figures. the obama administration has called in some of the biggest names in the tech industry to help, including folks from google and oracle. they say they'll have the website running smoothly by the end of this month. >> from the white house, nbc's kristen welker, thank you. as the white house works to fix the glitches with healthcare.gov, president obama is asking congress to refocus its energies on the long delayed budget. >> here's the bottom line. congress should pass a budget that cuts things we don't need and closes wasteful tax loopholes that don't help create jobs so that we can free up resources for things that do create jobs and growth. >> building new roads, building new bridges and schools and airports, that creates jobs. >> joining me now is republican congressman tom cole, a member of the appropriations and budget

committees. representative coal, thanks for joining me. >> great to be with you. >> you initially said you were open to raising revenue as part of a budget deal but you clarified your position later. so whether it was raising taxes or through some other form. what is it exactly? >> well, frankly, i'm open to looking at what i'd call pro growth revenue. and that means things like repatriation of stranded profits overseas, expedited production of energy offshore and federal lands. we've got a lot of assets. federal government owns 20% of all the land in the united states. we we can look the an asset sales. if democrats want to put other ideas on table, i'm willing to look at them. at the end of the day, i don't think we need to raise taxes. we need to actually take some of the president's proposals in terms of entitlement reforms that republicans agree with. they won't be easy to pass. they're tough for both sides to vote for but they're the right things and apply them to the

deficit and easing the sequester. there's a deal to be made if both sides will approach it with willingness to engage in give and take. >> i'm curious how optimisticing that lawmakers will do the same because you're saying give and take, both sides have to give a little. >> well, remember, first of all, let's start with the things we agree on. we agree with a lot of the president's entitlement reforms. we don't think we should have to pay for areas we agree by doing things like raising taxes. we don't expect the democrats to embrace the ryan plan on medicare or the block grant medicaid to the states. so they've got some lines in the sand on their side. i respect that. but there's enough room in the middle to actually get something done, and frankly, if not, you know, the sequester levels of spending are already written into the law. and we can certainly enact those. but again, we think there's better ways to save money and still have money to do some of the things the president's talking about doing.

infrastructure development and certainly easing some of the domestic spending cuts that will otherwise take place. >> can you guarantee sir, with these negotiations we're not going to be in the very same place we were before the extreme wing of your party picked up with the obama care fight? there senator ted cruz have a big voice. >> look, i think the president would have been a lot better off today if he would have done the one thing we asked which was delay obama care for a year. i don't think that was an extreme request. given the debacle of the rollout, i think they probably should have heeded us. i think it's going to hurt the democrats and the president but the american people long-term. in terms of what we're willing to do, we are willing to sit sit down and negotiate. i'm one member of congress. i don't think we're likely to be in a government shutdown mode again. it's a question whether we'll have the sequester cuts which neither side wants or reasonable compromise which i think is achievable. >> you can understand from the president's point of view the reason he didn't want the delay for a year. it would have given republicans

a greater opportunity to try to repeal obama care overall. >> look, they control the united states senate. the president has got a vote toe and he's going to be in office for three more years plus. so i've never thought repeal was very likely thing. it was an unrealistic goal for those who set it. but the president's in a strong position. now we have passed seven pieces of legislation that the president agreed to, democrats in the senate that have saved $62 billion. there's probably other areas we can agree on. we should work down that path. again, i don't see that fight as one that needs to be mixed up with you know, the budget of the united states. again, we should look at some of the compromises on the table that both sides have agreed on, enact them and use the savings to do again some domestic infrastructure type programs, but also to ease the sequester cuts. that's a doable goal. >> sir, when your constituents call into your office and say they're having trouble with signing up for obama care, are you helping them through the

website problems? >> absolutely. look, it's the law. and so you know, our job there is to assist people whenever we get a call whether you know, it's a past port case or a veterans case or somebody that's having difficulty signing up you know to this particular program. we don't deny you know, services or help to any constituent that calls and asks. >> amid this roll out, there's a new poll out by the kaiser family foundation which pound that nearly half of americans still want obama care to either stay the same or perhaps be expanded, only 13% want it replaced with some sort of republican alternative. so can you argue there is an appetite for their health care option? and could your party have made a better case had they come up with their own viable tangible health care plan? >> first of all, we did have a viable tangible health care plan. it was voted down. we've got a number of health care plans out there now. tom price has one.

the republican study committee has one. the idea there's no alternative to obama care isn't the case. i haven't seen this particular poll. all the polling i've seen and that's what i used to do for a living saying this program has never been popular. it's been well run or well conceived jammed through with overwhelming temporary democratic majorities that don't exist today. it's been i think the administration has been pretty intransigent in looking at change, delay, what have you. at the end of the day, politics is politics. the distribution of power is such it's going to be very difficult to repeal as long as democrats control the senate and as long as the president's the president. so let's change it where we can but let's make sure we govern in good faith and get some things done, slow down this budget deficit or bring it further down. and again, encourage economic growth. those are things that are doable. >> representative cole, i do want to take a moment to get your thoughts on the food stamps fight. you've said in the past that

food stamps should not be separated from the farm bill. how do you see both sides of the aisle trying to negotiate on a farm bill considering such a huge gap between how much the house and senate want to cut from this program? there's like a $35 billion differential there. >> it is. it's $35 billion in an $800 billion program over five plus years. so the idea that this can't be achieved, excuse me ten years, is simply not the case. i would expect the conference committee will work. it will find middle ground. we've had an explosion in food stamps. they doubled under president bush and doubled again even during a recovery under president obama. so there's a lot of growth there. republican position is not unreasonable. but i would expect the two sides to split the difference. they're not very far apart on the production parts of the program. you know, and bring us back what will probably be a bipartisan bill that will you know, lose republicans on the right and democrats on the left. but i think there will be a sensible center that will preserve the safety net programs and you know, push through the programs that are critical for

rural america. >> sir, some of the cuts with the expiration of the stimulus is causing some families to be cutting 16, 20 meals a month. >> again, you know, when you expand a program, this program when the president came into office was about a $34 billion $35 billion program. it's about $80 billion a year now. again, we ought to look the an each individual case, but this program has continued to go, go up. expand even when the economy has recovered and unemployment's coming down. this doesn't make any sense. and so clearly, i think folks have probably been that administered the program overly generous. those portions that are expiring were gosh, meant to be temporary. they weren't meant to continue indefinitely. so again, the program is much, much larger than it was when the president came into office. so the idea there's no room to trim or reform, i just think doesn't stand up to scrutiny. >> republican congressman tom cole, thank you oech for your time. >> thank you. >> "hardball's" chris matthews

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>> new today, president obama's urging lawmakers to pass a budget before the current temporary budget expires and before we reach the debt ceiling february 7th. >> budgets can be a boring topic especially on weekend but they can also be revealing because they expose what our priorities are as a country. for everybody to see. >> and part of the budget discussion involves the snap program that provides food stamps and yesterday, $5 billion in cuts took effect which is an average of $36 less per month pore recipients impacting more than 47 million americans. joining me now elise vee back and political editor for the

grio perryjuni. perry, what is behind these cuts to the snap program? >> what's behind them is there was an increase in snap funding because of the stimulus of 2009. and that extension that increase has ended now. neither party really fought to keep this up. it's not as though the republicans didn't push to keep this money up. white house and democrats didn't either. you basically had a situation in washington where neither party -- this wasn't a divide in the issue but both parties sort of tacitly agreed they were going to let this increase go even though it affects millions of americans as we talked about. >> yeah. a few more numbers to go over with you elise. 8% of food stamps recipients are in homes with seniors, kids or the disabled. economists have found, listen to this, for every dollar in snap spending $1.70 is generated for the local community. husband republicans want to cut that additional money from the

program. what do you see are the chances of that happening? >> i don't think the cuts are going to be as dramatic as house republicans want. they feel they're wasteful programs. they feel many people who receive benefits ought not to, for example, able-bodied working adults in some cases have been able to get food stamps. many conservative lawmakers think that should not be the case. that the program should have certain work requirements in order to get benefit pchz i don't think republicans are going to get everything they want certainly not in the context of the budget conference where the democrats hold sway. they're certainly equal to democrats in that venue. but yeah, i guess we'll have to see what happens on the program's budget. >> okay. let's talk about this bombshell book called "double down" that hit stores on tuesday in which it reveals jaw dropping secrets of the 2012 campaign. i spoke with our good friend, chris matthews about it earlier today. take a listen. >> the big news in this book is that joe biden's running for

president and has been running since 2011. joe biden will be running for president and will have certainly decided to run long before hillary clinton makes any public or private indication whether she's running or not. we're looking at a real collision down the road. we'll have a gene mack art think bobby kennedy situation here well before 2016. >> is that how you see it playing out. ery? >> i love chris but don't agree with the analysis. i'm not sure joe biden and hillary clintoning are equivalent candidates. if you look at polls, it shows in iowa hillary clinton is ahead by 50 points or something like that. . i find it hard to believe if she's committed to running and does so that joe biden who is a friend of hers who probably who understands she's a heavy favorite right now, i don't see them running against each other. i think it would be a black mark upon biden's vice presidency if he ran for president and really lost by a lot to hillary clinton which i think is what would happen. >> okay. here's the other thing. we don't know that hillary

clinton is running for sure. >> not running, there's no collision course. >> he might, as well throw his hat in the ring just in case. if his hat gets to be hot and popular, maybe she will think twice about running again. any logic to that, elise. >> i don't know about that. we're all expecting hillary will ultimately run. there are a lot of donors excited about her candidacy and maybe that joe biden doesn't have that same kind of momentum. i find it hard to believe that hillary, given the amount of buzz surrounding her, would consider stepping out of the race if joe biden gets in. i don't think that's what's going to 0 happen. >> okay. i'm going to switch gears. perry, if chris is right, he's going to hunt you down. and go hey, i was right. okay. but also perry with your latest article titled "why a bad start does not doom obama care." how is that? >> well, we have six months where people can enroll for the law. so the key thing to rower remember is the first month has been bad, dismal.

people who really want health insurance can't logon to healthcare.gov. that's a real problem. what the administration is saying, there was some evidence for this, as well. most people are probably not going to sign up for a new plan in the first month. the plans deputy start till january 1st. if the website starts new yorking november 30th, this story will change a lot. you see a lot of people get health insurance. people will like obama care more if the website starts working. the bad start doesn't necessarily doom it. if the website continues to be this ineffective, we have real challenges here. >> elise in your latest article you write about the darrell issa who issued that subpoena for kathleen sebelius. >> that's right. >> she already testified wednesday. what's he hoping to get now? >> he wants more documents. house oversight and government reform committee is one panel led by republicans among many that has been grilling hhs and hoping to get a load of documents that describe even just the first days of meetings

about how many people had enrolled. they're really drilling down and hoping to get a level of detail. they feel hhs has not been spoonsive quickly enough. hhs says say they were impacted by the government shutdown and many of these who initial document requests happened when staff was on furlough. issa took this big step and decided to issue a subpoena. >> okay. elise vee beck and perry bacon junior, thank you both. tact and fiction. the myths and truths about obama care. that's ahead. ♪ [ chicken caws ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! they always have. they always will. that's why you take charge of your future. your retirement. ♪ ameriprise advisors can help you

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reduced food stamp benefits. the automatic cuts are a prelude to who are cuts down the line. republicans have proposed a new cut, as much as $39 billion. take a listen to how some of them rationalize the cuts at this week's farm bill conference. >> why does the safety net need reform? because people are getting tangled in it. the house ends benefits for individuals that quite honestly don't qualify for them. >> asking people to work in return for food stamp programs is not any form of cruel or unusual punishment. the dignity of work has long been a pretty common theme throughout the ages. >> joining me now is jim mcdermott, a member of the budget and house and ways and means committees. and with a welcome to you, representative mcdermott, nice to see you again, sir. when we think about the major impact yesterday's cuts will have on families many are pointing the blame on republicans because of their stance on entitlement programs. do you think your party could have done more to avoid

yesterday's cuts or is there a chance the party didn't think it's going to be so bad once it materialized? >> i think there's always room to improve the programs that people have. medicare, social security, food stamps au these programs. but when you cut money out of a food stamp program, you're taking food right off the table. i stopped in the grocery store and bought $36 worth of groceries the other day just to see what it's like. you know, it was five yogurts and five cans of soup and a box oftrist cuts and a few things. you say to yourself, if that's what you're taking away from a family of four, some days there's simply not going to be anything on the table for those people. so it isn't a question of whether whether they're living high on the hog. it is really a question of whether you're giving them enough energy to go to school and do well in school, work or to go look for a job or anything else. if you want people to work, you've got to have them fed.

>> yeah. how do you see both sides of the aisle trying to negotiate on a farm bill considering such a huge $35 billion gap between how much the house and senate want to cut from the food stamp program? >> one of the questions that has to be answered here in the budget is whether whether or not we're going to have additional revenue. the republicans keep insisting there can be no revenue. now, if they do that, that means the s.n.a.p. program will be cut but it also means health research will be cut and the sequester will continue. and it's going to be very hard to get a resolution of the budget problem if you're unwilling to close some loopholes and get some additional money. this simply are some things that we are now cutting which will have long-term effects that as a society we can't stop investing in like food for kids and health research. >> all right. i want to switch gears and address the obama care debate, sir. i spoke with republican congressman tom cole a few

moments ago who said the president should have perhaps conceded to their demands for a delay in obama care up to a year perhaps. that could have avoided these glitches. what's your take on that? >> no, i think he's wrong. everybody in fact i predicted six months ago there would be problems because anytime you try as big a social program as this, where you're trying to bring 30 million people into a program that have never been involved in health insurance before, and many of whom don't understand computers and are -- you're going have glitches. so you have to power through it. we did the same thing with social security. in 1935, you had 21 million people that did not have a social security number. we had to issue a social security number for everyone. we had to sort ought owl the smiths and connect the smiths to their income to do this social security program. it was very difficult to do. it was a mess at the beginning. but it's working just fine now. i think this is going to work

well. >> i'm curious as being a member of the house ways and means committee, your chairman, dave kemp, he wants to subpoena hhs and get the numbers of people who have enrolled up to this date. do you want to see the numbers? >> you know when we started the part d, the drug program. medicare, we didn't have an oversight hearing for six months. we waited and let it get started. because the democrats didn't come in and hammer them and try and make them look bad or anything else. what kemp is doing is try to make the president look bad by asking in the first month, the first month is just barelyover yesterday. he's already saying give me the numbers. well, have a little patience. my mother used to say, you know, a little patience doesn't hurt anything. that's really where we are. we're going to do fine in the end. >> do you think the problems with the rollout have given the republican party more leverage to be more aggressive? >> clearly it didn't help

anything to have the computer system be a big mess. i mean, even in the state you have washington where we had done our own exchange, we had computer problems because we had three times as many people show up on the first day as we expected. so i think we underestimated the pent up demand out there. i think it would have worked better if it worked smoothly at the beginning but we're going to get through it. it's not the end of the earth if one day is a bad day. >> i like your candor. it didn't help anything. that's true. democrats are taking a hit though over the rollout. much like the republicans took that pr hit over the government shutdown. which one do you think is going to have the more lasting effect for the midterm elections. >> i think the decision by the republicans to close the government down was a self-inflicted wound that they're going to have a hard time getting over because people understood that they were

willing to sacrifice anything to get the president. i think this problems with the medicare or the health care bill is, those will be forgotten by six months from now or a year when we get to election and people are having health insurance and getting their needs taken care of and getting preventive care. all these things that are going to happen. they're going to be grateful i think, and you're going to have people in some states saying, why can't we have what they have in california and oregon and washington? where is our governor? what's our legislature doing? you're going to see a lot of turmoil in this country over states that refused to participate. >> all right. representative jim mcdermott, thanks so much. . >> see you again. >> okay. a u.s. drone strike hit its mark in pakistan precisely taking out the leader of pakistan's taliban insurgency. hakimullah mehsud is known for carrying out ruthless attacks. pakistan's government says it has summoned the u.s. ambassador to protest the strike.

meantime a 13-year-old pakistani boy and his sister are protesting all drones strikes in the region and testified in washington this week about the price they paid last year on the hill in a separate interview here on msnbc, they said they were injured badly. their grandmother killed in a drone attack and they say they fear blue skies now because that is when the drones come out. >> translator: i used to go outside and play but now i don't go outside and play because i'm scared. >> joining me now, ronnian cal lick covering the story. ronnia with a welcome for anyone who did not see the complete testimony from the children and their father, how compelling was their story? how was it received on the hill? >> well, they traveled 7,000 miles to come and tell congress about the drone strike that killed their grandmother and only five members of congress attended. so but the five members of congress who did attend almost all apologized to the family for

the strike. and testimony was heartbreaking. it was very moving, as well. it brought congressman alan grayson to tears as well as several other people in the room. and i think it's really important for really all americans to see this because this is the first time that drone strike victims have been able to directly address congress and the american public. and to actually put a face on the people who are being impacted by this program. >> ronnia, did you get any answers as to why only five of our elected officials were there for that testimony? >> well, congressman gray son said because it's a briefing not many congress members generally show up at briefings. still, the day after, there was a another drone strike on pakistan. and there was another one yesterday, as well which you just mentioned that allegedly killed the taliban leader. i'm not sure people in the u.s. government are listening. >> this region in pakistan,

where these children were injured, waziristan, it is a tribal area known to be controlled by militants and we talk about that strike from yesterday. it's exactly where it happened striking down the taliban leader. is there legitimacy to striking there and shouldn't there be an expectation by now that you civilians take a risk by staying in the region? >> well, that's not really fair because civilian who's live there don't have a choice. that's where they live just like i grew up where i grew up. i don't have a choice. on top of that, is there a reason to be killing these people, these are all suspected terrorists that were constantly targeting in this area. they haven't had a trial to prove that they're guilty of anything. lease been no evidence presented to the american public. it's all in secret. so we have a program where people are being killed and targeted because of their suspected militancy. and you know, that really is the anti-thesis of everything that is enshrined in our constitution, everything we're supposed to stand for.

>> rania, we get conflicting numbers all the time about the number of civilians killed. do you have numbers you can share? >> no, this is something that's been difficult to pinpoint because this is a very -- this is a region of the world kind of off-limits to a lot of people. we have repeated investigations by human rights organizations a couple of which came out last which can which i believe you covered on your program by amnesty international and human rights watch and specifically in pakistan, amnesty international said up to 900 civilians have been killed since 2004 by strikes. that's the number i guess we're looking at. there's no way to know exactly how many. >> it is an important discussion. rania khalek, thank you so much. the big three talks about the bombshell book coming up next. asthma doesn't affect my job... you were out sick last week. my asthma doesn't bother my family... you coughed all through our date night! i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. what did you say?

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as she covers health policy for "the washington post." sarah, you say many things in your article titled "31 things relearned in the first 31 days." one being that heavy traffic is not the biggest problem that the website faces. >> that's what we heard from the administration especially in the first few days that they got this crush of visitors that made it difficult to operate the website. what we've seen since then over the course of the last month is that traffic has died down but a lot of the problems still remain and one of the big problems right now is that when people enroll, if they can make it through the enrollment process, the forms going to insurance companies aren't accurate. one insurance company, for example, got and he rollment form for someone who supposedly had three spouses. that was not because they were.polygamists but because the information is going out inaccurately. that's a huge problem for insurance plans who need to know who do they send the member cards to and who do they start

paying claims for. >> that's a big yikes when i heard that one. what about kentucky? why has that exchange become so successful. >> a great success, perhaps the most successful marketplace in the country. a few of the things they did that might have helped is they kind of scaled back their operations a little bit in the process of getting ready and decided certain bare bones were really important and didn't focus on the bells and chick-fil-as. and that might have helped them have a pretty smooth launch. they've also been very open. they're constantly sending out updates on here are the challenges, the number of people signing up. they've been really forthcoming with different information both about their successes and their challenges. >> so it's being reported that about half of the peep who purchased their own insurance are going to receive cancellation notices. anecdotally, not all of those folks are upset, right? >> right. there are some people who are actually excited to get a cancellation notice which sounds odd.

but what it means for some people is that they're going to upgrade to a plan that covers more benefits that they might not have been able to afford prior to the health care law. the people who might be excited would be lower income people who will qualify for a subsidy ed under the new health care law so they can buy a plan that is potentially better than what they have right now at a lower cost. >> so best case scenario, what needs to happen by the end of november to make this all go smoothly? >> a lot i would say. the federal government really needs to work out both those back end issues i discussed earlier about the forms going out inaccurately to insurers. there are front end issues they need to address also. website healthcare.gov was down for a good part of this week because of issues that health and human services has had with verizon doing some of the hosting for the website. that was an outage that took a fay days. jeff zients said they still think they can hit the november 30th deadline. there is a big list of things

that need to happen both with the front end user experience of people getting in the dooren at back end getting information out the door to insurance companies. >> okay. we're going to have you come back and keep track of it. sarah cliff, good to see you. thanks. why did mitt romney pass on chris christie to be his vice president? a new book has quite the revelation. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. (aaron) purrrfect. (vo) meee-ow, business pro. meee-ow. go national. go like a pro. excuse me? glacier point? follow me! ♪ follow me! keep up, keep up, keep up. ♪

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it's time now for one big, big 3. today's topics, where are we now, bombshell book and best week, worst week. let's bring in goldie taylor, republican strategist susan del percio and jason johnson. switching things up. we have about six minutes to do it all. starting with you, goldie, the bombshell book hitting stores next week. it spells several shocking series from the 2012 election. what do you make of the vp situation?

>> i make of it that it is that season again. we get to the last few years of the president's last term, it's time to put out the campaign books. a lot of people have axes to grind and seeds to sow. both will come out in this book. in terms of whether or not joe biden was going to be swapped out for hillary clinton, who knows if it was ever seriously considered? i know because of the people i talked to, it was something that was under consideration in the white house. whether that was in the inner circle i think is another question altogether. this book deserves a good read. >> the book says mitt romney rid dual ridiculed chris christie's weight. do you think there's any truth to the claim? >> there probably is some truth to that. i think there were health concerns when it came to governor christie which were probably unfounded. but this is a book for political junkies that like to find out

the little morsels. >> this book describes an edgy relationship between the president and president clinton. he's being quoted as saying, i like him in doses. >> the last bombshell book where bill clinton supposedly said a guy like obama would have been serving them coffee in the '80s. no love is lost between barack obama, bill clinton and their camps. it's going to be a very, very funny campaign in 2016 when he pretends he likes hillary. none of that is a surprise to me. >> part two, the obama care rollout, goldie, hearing a lot of stories from both sides. give me your overall assessment. >> i think there were a lot of legacy systems to have to pull together, lots of migrations had to happen in terms of the health care companies and their policies and the qualifying information that individual consumers would have to put into this. that's a lot of stuff to -- it's like cramming an elephant into a sock. that's what happened.

you have a systemwide breakdown. i understand the president and his team has pulled in the best and brightest minds around this. the fact of the matter is, this is going to get fixed. people are going to get the health care that they need in the coming days. i'm going to be one of those people who gets to sign up before the deadline comes and goes. i think we're going to be talking about this for a little while longer until it gets fixed then we'll be on to something else. >> jason, when you are people complaining about obama care, wanting to keep their old plans and not being able to, what's your response? >> my response is, it's been a month. relax. it's a brand-new policy. to be perfectly candid, we don't hear enough from the actual people out there who are without health care. a lot of the complaining is coming from people who are perfectly comfortable who already have health care coverage. but i also think this is a brand-new program. we have to see how it rolls out. there were always going to be problems with it, republicans and democrats have mentioned it. but to scuttle everything because it doesn't roll out perfectly in a month, if we did

that, half the things we've accomplished in america would never have been done. >> senator dan coates says the gop is not going to stop fighting to get rid of obama care. but this is the law. obama care is not going anywhere. so when are republicans finally going to accept that? i just had representative tom cole of oklahoma come on the broadcast and i specifically asked him, when you have your constituents calling to say, we can't work this system, he says, they help. he says, we have to help. it's the law, implement it. >> that's 100% right. and the fact is that obama care, even though it's been a horrible rollout which all will agree, absolutely horrible, it is the law. it will be implemented. you're not going to take away people's health insurance who have already enrolled. yes, there's going to have to be modifications and tweaks to it. but the republicans are not going to be able to repeal it. they need to seek to replace certain parts of it. but most important is that the president really had a rough ride on the rollout with these words -- you can keep your health care plan if you like it. period.

and that's his problem is that you cannot keep -- everyone is not guaranteed to keep their health care plan. that's been a big problem for him this week. >> to the best and worst of the week. goldie, what's yours? >> my best of the week is the family of kendrick johnson who kept fighting until they got the full release of all of the evidence involved in the death -- in the incident surrounding their son's death. i think they were right to fight for that and for the answers to understand whether this was foul play or an accident. >> your worst? >> my worst of the week is -- >> ted cruz' father. >> there we go. >> worst of the week is ted cruz's father, rafael cruz who back in april according to "mother jones" magazine says the president should go back to kenya. >> susan? >> best week to the great book "double down." >> worst? >> the worst goes to president

obama. his lowest approval rating ever at 42%. >> jason, you have to go fast? >> best week for the people of syria and barack obama. all he had to do is reach for his holster and they gave up their chemical weapons. worst week goes to shaquille o'neal. don't endorse chris christie, you have no idea what you could be getting yourself into in 2016. >> thank you guys so much. that's a quick bye-bye. see you back here tomorrow. bye. [ susan ] ...as though he had never left.

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